A 5,650-acre cattle ranch in the Cuyama Valley has gained permanent protection, according to the California Rangeland Trust.

El Rancho Español de Cuyama, commonly referred to as Spanish Ranch, is located about 35 miles east of Santa Maria and spans both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The Doiron family, which has owned and operated the ranch for nearly 30 years, conserved the property through a conservation easement completed in partnership with the California Rangeland Trust.

The trust said the ranch represents the largest remaining piece of the original 22,000-acre Mexican land grant from 1843 and that the easement will help keep the landscape intact as working agricultural land while also protecting habitat and open space in the region.

The effort had been in the works for years. Madison Goss, marketing and communications manager for the California Rangeland Trust, said Pam Doiron approached the trust several years ago about pursuing the easement, and the family remained closely involved throughout the process.

“One thing that we kind of pride ourselves on at the Rangeland Trust is that ranchers come to us because an easement is their decision and it needs to work for their family,” she said.

Goss said the easement does not include public access to the ranch.

Spanish Ranch features rocky ridges and wooded valleys that support more than 33 wildlife species, including hawks, falcons and quail. The trust also said numerous special-status species, such as the California condor, bald eagle, golden eagle, Southwestern pond turtle and Northern California legless lizard, migrate through or call the ranch home.

In a video posted on the Spanish Ranch and California Rangeland Trust websites in 2018, Doiron described the ranch as a place shaped by deep history and long-term stewardship. She also spoke about wanting the ranch to remain both productive and protected.

“A working landscape like we have … uses the land and enhances the land, and that’s what the California Rangeland has been able to do with hundreds of thousands of acres already, and I want to be part of that,” Doiron said.

Now, eight years later, Goss said Spanish Ranch is the 105th ranching family the trust has partnered with to conserve land.

Goss said the project followed the trust’s 2020 conservation of neighboring Rockfront Ranch in the Cuyama Valley, which she described as the organization’s first privately funded ranch conservation campaign. She said the Spanish Ranch effort followed a similar model on a larger scale.

According to the release, more than 140 private donors and seven private foundations came together to help make the project happen.

The California Rangeland Trust said it has now helped conserve more than 431,000 acres of rangeland across the state.